WoW, Casually: A casual guide to the Lunar Festival

Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win.

When I did my recap for last year, I listed events as the 4th top casual improvement for 2008. Some commenters didn't understand why events are good for casual players. I think that most of the in-game holidays are, in fact, great opportunities for casuals to enhance their characters and see the world. The Lunar Festival is a very useful event, particularly if you are an altaholic, like me. Following are some tips for getting the most out of the Lunar Festival.
Minimum Level: 1, but you need at least 3 silver to buy the fireworks required to complete the quest in order to get the invitation.

Initial Quest Giver: Lunar Festival Herald. This person is hanging out by the bank in a major old world city near you. This quest is not required.

Required Quest Giver: Lunar Festival Harbinger. You need to complete the quest and fire off the fireworks in order to get the invitation to the festival in Moonglade.

Keep the Invitation: The invitation not only takes you to Moonglade, you can use it to travel to all of the major old world cities of your faction.

Pick up the Flight Path in Moonglade: Once you are in Moonglade, you are close to either the Alliance or Horde flight paths. If your character does not have them already, go and pick them up. The Horde flight path is just off the road toward Timbermaw Hold and the Alliance path is south of the road going east just past some ruins.

Go to the main village: Turn in the quest and shop at the vendors here. This is where you spend the coins you pick up from the Elders.

Why should you as a casual player spend your limited playtime tracking down Elders and taking their coins? There are the Achievements, of course, which are certainly fun to accrue. And there is the pretty clothing and other goodies which is great for collectors and bank alts. There's even a little experience to be had for completing the quests. But there is one major reason why every single player, casual or otherwise, should go find as many Elders as possible: Reputation.

Every Elder you chat with gives you 75 points of reputation with your faction -- everybody in your faction. So if you are Horde, your rep with every Horde faction goes up. This really adds up. Reputation is great for Achievements, for cheaper prices and for getting mounts. Though the race restrictions on mounts went away in Patch 3.0.8, you still need to have Exalted rep in order to buy another race's mount. Visiting Elders is a very quick and easy way to increase your rep by a huge amount.

If you have lowbie alts or are new to the game, it also benefits you to participate in the Lunar Festival. You can pick up all of the major flight paths, get to the major cities easily to buy all of your weapon skills and pick up a nice amount of exploring experience. My guide to taking your lowbie(s) around the Lunar Festival from last year is still valid if you want more details.

Even if it is just to break up the standard leveling grind, participating in events is a good expenditure of your time. So go forth and honor your Elders. You have until February 12th to get all of your characters as many coins as possible. Also, stay tuned to WoW Insider for an It Came from the Blog event coming soon.

WoW, Casually is a column for those of us who are playtime-challenged and proud Welfare Epic wearers. If you have questions or tips about how to get the most out of your limited playtime, please send them to Robin.Torres AT weblogsinc DOT com for a possible future column.